BTZ Blog

Wrong understanding of God. Denominationalism. Denominated seminaries. Man-made rules and rituals. Insufficiency of Christ. Mixing Grace and law as the gospel. Sunday-go-programmed meetings. Buildings called churches. Segregation. Clergy/laity class distinction. Tradition. Bible as the “Word of God”. Bible idolatry. Bible misinterpretation. Contextual ignorance. Historical ignorance. Grace ignorance. Law ignorance. Judging and condemning. Shame and blame game. End-time fear-mongering. Legalism. Hell Fire and brimstone preaching. False doctrine. False teaching. Spiritual elitism. Denominational pride. Tithing. Celebrity pa-stars. Man-appointed preachers. Man-appointed teachers. Hierarchical structure.

  You make the word of God of none effect because of your tradition.” These are words of Christ to religious leaders during His earth walk. If the religious leaders of Christ time could invalidate the word of God because of their tradition, my question is; is it not possible that religious tradition is doing it today? Do we who think we have it all right, have of all right? When one considers that the scripture declares that “the letter kills and the Spirit gives life and our traditional beliefs must harmonize with the Spirit of Christ, and if they do not they will do what the verse in Mathew 15:6 states above. Traditions endure for generations, are highly revered, and are extremely difficult to admit they may be wrong and people have difficulty changing them when they are wrong. There are no forms of error that are more difficult to correct. When Paul and Stephen declared to their fellow countrymen that God's mercy and forgiveness extended to the Gentiles, they were ...

 Jesus did not just come to show people a way; He is the way. Jesus did not come so we could bask in self-righteousness; He is our righteousness. Jesus did not come so religion could be our source; He is our source. Jesus did not come so religious men could rule the roost; He is the Head of the Community of the Redeemed. Jesus did not come so we could be in relationship with religion; He came so we could be in relationship with Him. Jesus did not come to establish a religion; He came to destroy religion's stronghold on people. Jesus did not come to establish denominational segregation of people in different name-tagged buildings called "churches"; He came to unite people as His Community of the Redeemed through unity of the Spirit. Jesus did not come to sanction men as His  as spiritual teachers; He came to sanction His Spirit as the Spiritual Teacher. Jesus did not come to sanction the Mosaic Law; He came to fulfill the Mosaic Law....

The Mosaic law is not for people who are righteous in Christ in whom dwells the Spirit of Truth. The law is for those who do not have the kingdom of God within them or has allowed religion to make them dull of hearing to where they cannot hear the Spirit of Truth by accepting religion's deception to be truth. Therefore, fleshly appetites are supposedly kept in check by the striving to keep the external yoke of the Mosaic Law and the religious rules of the man-made religious system. Those who live in the graciousness of God's amazing Grace and are led by the Spirit of Truth within will find themselves in conflict with struggling ti keep the external law-keeping gospel and the religious man-made rules of men when the go against the God whom Jesus (the express image of God) came to show us. Not because the laws are wrong, but because they cannot be kept by our striving, nor were they established as the measuring stick to determine a person's relationship with God. ...

Christ is the Head of His ekklesia...“the called out ones”...the Community of the Redeemed. What ever is orchestrated, planned and implemented by man's ingenuity is not relevant to the Community of the Redeemed as Christ representatives in the earth. Religion assembles people together by denominations, doctrines, bible interpretations, special interests or around charismatic leaders that maintains an appearance of spiritual wisdom, this results in division of God's family. Believers are to assemble under the Headship of Christ, with Christ...not the headship of religion without Christ or Christ in subjection to religious hierarchy. The complexity of mixing law and grace by the religious world, veils the simplicity of Christ and His Gospel of Grace and complicates the believer's life. The programs and and promotional methods of the religious system have led the institutionalized denominational assembling to a state of religious busyness, doctrinal shallowness and spi...

 God does not delight in the adverse circumstance that you have gone through or may be going through right now, nor did He plan the cause of it. Neither is He a slot machine where your input tithe money or a validated voucher that you received for religious performance in hopes of winning prosperity, healing or anything else you consider to be a blessing.  However, you have more than any material blessing you may want...He (your loving Father) is going through the circumstance with you and will use the circumstance, if you will allow Him, to strengthen His purpose in your life...there is no blessing any greater than that! If you are a believer and and you are pushing the buttons of religious performance in hopes of hitting the right one that if done well, will get God's attention and He will shine His blessing favor on you...you are living in a make-believe world of religious fantasy. Religion has created a slot-machine God who is suppose to jump into action when the ri...

The way the gospel is presented by the religionists, one would think that God delights in fear-mongering tactics to woo people to Himself. God is love, love never thinks that way therefore, God does not think that way. The scripture declares that it is “the kindness of God that leads people to repentance and away from any hell that there may be.” The fear-mongering fear-monger’s vivid mongering of hell was never meant to be the drawing power that drew people to God. To listen to the religionists, one would think that God created people to save their souls from hell...He didn't! It is as if the Godhead sat around talking...”let us make man in my image, but sinners so Jesus can go and save them from hell after the Holy Spirit convicts them of the sinning sinners I created them to be.” Absurd...VERY! One would think that God and Satan are going tit for tat for the souls of men, and according to religion Satan wins in the end because the vast majority of God's creation is s...

Is it possible that some of the characteristics religion has attributed to God is not only untrue, but in actual fact, are the traits of Satan? Religion worships a false God, a God based on their misinterpreted understanding of scripture has created a schizophrenic, egotistic, punitive God of horror. They have bombarded this concept so deep in the minds of the mine altered religious denominated saints, that to even question the religious hogwash is to be considered a hieratic that is hell bound. What are some of the false God's religion has created? The mad God. The bad God. The God to fear. The Santa Clause God. The celebrity God. The money grabbing God. The Jealous God. The God who takes offense. The hating God. The God of Judgement. The condemning God. The disappointed God. The denominated God. The grudge holding God. The loveless God. The uncaring God. The needing help God. The performance demanding God. The hell fire and brimsto...

If we refuse the truth of the gospel and instead accept the man-made truth of religion, would we not be found accepting deception as truth and our ability to spiritual mature is thwarted? If we condemn the love and grace of God because of religious man-made traditional beliefs,  would we not be found condemning Jesus? If we are justified in condemning people because of the people they associate with, should we not condemn Jesus Christ for being a "friend of sinners"...for attending a wedding party where the patrons got drunk and after all the wine was gone made new wine for them to drink...for associating with a prostitute...and associating with a tax collector and swindler? I wonder...would Jesus befriend gays and lesbians, or would He be found judging and condemning them by standing with the self-righteous "sainted saints" against them, while saying they are standing for Christ and ...

If we refuse the truth of the gospel and instead accept the man-made truth of religion, would we not be found accepting deception as truth and our ability to spiritual mature is thwarted? If we condemn the love and grace of God because of religious man-made traditional beliefs,  would we not be found condemning Jesus? If we are justified in condemning people for the company they keep, should we not condemn Jesus Christ for being a "friend of sinners"...for attending a wedding party where the patrons got drunk and after all the wine was gone made new wine for them to drink...for associating with a prostitute...and associating with a tax collector and swindler?  I wonder...would Jesus befriend gays and lesbians, or would He be found judging and condemning them by standing with the self-righteous "sainted saints " against them, while saying they are standing for Christ and the "ch...

 Religion plays out the Gospel as a courtroom drama.   Grace lives out the Gospel in the burning love of God. When we present the message of the Crucifixion as a courtroom drama, gospel reality is cold, lifeless and fear-mongering. A gospel concerning a legal transaction that is validated by do's and don'ts of the religious legal contract of the Law with its religious rules and observances does not have the power to move the heart of man to transform the person. However when we present the Gospel in historical setting and context in which the crucifixion happened, and understand what it truly accomplished, our fears and inhibitions will dissipate because of God's burning love transforms, something that the fear-mongering of a burning hell can never do. Presenting the Gospel as a courtroom drama, where if man does not accept God's offer of salvation results in a burning hell is not the good news of the gospel. The Gospel was an act of the burning love o...

People are made with a thinking ability that is channeled through their brain in this earth realm and allows us to relate to the natural earthly realm. One thing we need to understand...though the brain is an amazing work of ingenuity...it is not our thinking ability. It is the avenue through which our thinking ability works in this earthly realm we live in. Man's thinking ability resides in their spirit. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for the y are foolishness unto him: neither can he know the m, because the y are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14). Within this earth suit in which we live in this earth realm environment God has blessed us with many intrinsic functional abilities to make our stay productive, profitable and enjoyable. How we use these abilities determines the quality of our existence in living life. Though the environment into which people are born is a huge factor in determining the quality of their existence...

Loyalty to religious denominational hierarchies is throwing your allegiance with man-made ideologies and structured organizations that have usurped the authority of Christ as Head of His Body, and it hinders the work of God through the Community of the Redeemed, just as loyalty to the traditions of men make the written word of God of no effect in bringing people to the fullness of the Godhead as a witness to the “Living Word” in the Community of Humanity. It is slanderous to the Gospel of Grace as to how easy believers become loyal to the mixed gospel of law and grace by pledging their allegiance to wolves in sheep’s clothing, rather than pledging their allegiance to the Lamb of God. Religion is a major force of the world system. By definition, it is a system that is concerned with form, regulations, rituals, ceremony and tradition, rather than life.”Holding a form of godliness but having denied the power thereof” (2 Tim. 3:5). Paul clearly writes about this in Gal...

A religious spirit is any spirit that fights against the grace gospel of God in our lives and the finished work of Jesus through His death and resurrection in fulfilling the eternal plan of God for the Community of Humanity. The Pharisees were obvious examples of people who have religious spirits. Religious spirits are very destructive to our intimate relationships with God. If you want a true intimate relationship with your heavenly Father, then you don't want to be influenced by religious spirits! Religion and spiritual relationships don't get along, and this is why religious spirits will work diligently to hinder true meaningful spiritual relationships between God and His children. Two behavioral manifestations of religious spirits are, one person may be plagued with feelings of never being good enough for God, while the next person may be infected with self-righteousness and false holiness. Both of these are diabolically apposed to our relationship with ...

Religion interprets the Bible in such a way that it puts people in religious bondage. Religion is a means of programming the innocent minds of unsuspecting people who believe that religion is the way to God! They are teaching things that are causing God's children to be afraid of God and run from Him instead of to Him. Our modern translations (the KJV included) don't help either, as they often skew what the contextual and historical setting of the text is. The KJV is a translation done by the human hand of fallible men from copies of copies, not the original manuscripts themselves. One area where there is much misunderstanding is the concept of the fear of the Lord. Fear is an unhealthy thing when we're talking about relationships. It is a good thing to fear or respect a raging storm or a forest fire, but fear is not helpful in the context of relationships, especially where emotional intimacy is involved. Could you freely enjoy an intimate relationship with your earth...

To teach that God wills “all people to be saved”and with the same breath, teach that the vast majority of His creation will be lost because they WILL NOT let Him save them, therefore, they will be sentenced to the torment of hell fire forever, is to teach that man's will supersedes God's will. Does that not border on believing that the Creator is impotent, and the created is omnipotent? Paul's prophecy in 2 Timothy 4:1-5 is alive and well today. All over the world people assemble in religious denominated buildings in the name of denominational segregated unity to worship a week willed God. They read the Bible from their denominated slanted viewpoint, pray their manipulative prayers commanding (overriding His will) God’s blessing, hear a religious manipulative sermon about tithing and fork over their money believing they are giving to God. They are devoted, but devoted to what? They are sincere, but sincerely wrong. They worship, but they worship in vain! They believ...

The phrase sola scriptura is from the Latin: sola having the idea of “alone,” “ground,” “base,” and the word scriptura meaning “writings”—referring to the Scriptures. Sola scriptura means that Scripture alone is authoritative for the faith and practice of the Christian. The Bible is complete, authoritative, and true. Sola scriptura was the rallying cry of the Protestant Reformation. Is it practiced by Protestant religions as they claim? The Bible itself does not allow for traditions that contradict the person of Jesus. Sola scriptura is  against unbiblical tradition, extra-biblical and/or anti-biblical doctrines of which religion is inundated with. The only way to know what is truth is not as to what tradition is or how respected religious men have interpreted the Bible but, we know what is truth by the revelation of the Spirit of Christ within. We can know, beyond the shadow of any doubt, that Scripture is true, authoritative, and contextual reliable ...

Does the Grace Gospel that Jesus gave to Paul encourage sin because there is no consequence to sinning, as accused by Grace plus Law people? Here is one man's response to one of my blog posts “I wish relationship with God was based on grace because then, I can go out and commit adultery, ...rob a bank and sin all I want because my sins past, present and future are forgiven.” That kind of response is revealing the fact that such a person is a “grace abuser” and in fact, has never met Grace...he has met a concept...he has met a ideology...he does not understand the full implication of Christ's death and resurrection. He is fully persuaded that the pre-cross gospel of works is carried over to the post-cross gospel of Grace because, he does not understand the person who is Grace. Is as this person assumes, sinful living the fruit of the Grace Gospel? This thinking that the Gospel of Grace promotes sin and licentiousness is not only a recent belief, Paul rec...

Because religion uses the writings about God bound between two leather covers as "The Word" of authority and direction giving, instead of the "Living Word"...Jesus...the Word made flesh, dwelling in our hearts, to make the written word live renders the written word dead. "For the Holy Spirit to come was just the same ALL, and FULFILLING of the whole gospel, as a Christ to come was the all, and the fulfilling of the Law. The Jew therefore with his Old Testament, not owning Christ in all his process to be the truth and life, and fulfiller of their Law, is just in the same apostasy, as the Christian with the New Testament, now owning the Holy Spirit in all his operations, to be his only light, guide and governor. For as all types and figures in the Law were but empty shadows without Christ's being the life and power of them, so all that is written in the gospel is but dead letter, unless the Holy Spirit in man be the living reader, the living remembe...

Is the religious practice of looking back in bible history to established Old Testament laws, traditions and man-made creeds as a safe guard against error valid? On the surface this seems like spiritual wisdom...but is it really? If our mind is focused on the past we will develop our perception of God based on what He established in the past or what men said about Him and built traditions. If our focus is on the mark...Jesus...we will forget those things which are behind and press forward, allowing the Spirit of Truth to lead us into spiritual truth. Looking back and refusing to let go of the things that we can relate to such as, performance driven agendas that gives us comfort and meaning because we can measure our success on some man-invented spiritual scale, we stagnate spiritually and resist the Spirit that is trying to lead us into all truth and revert back to the former religious way of doing things. (See Philippians 3:10-14) The Grace Gospel is to follow the example of Paul...

The thinking that denominated seminarian educated leaders are God's  chosen qualified dispensers of truth is foreign to scripture. John 14:26, informs us that God's appointed Teacher the Holy Spirit, that Father God sent in Jesus' name, will teach us all things spiritual relating to Jesus, the works He dis and the words He said. God's appointed Teacher has come to lead believers into the full realization of every thing Jesus is and desires to endow us with all truth that is resident IN Christ within us. As much as yo may believe that the Bible contains "all truth", the bible itself does not make that claim. Certainly everything that Jesus taught His disciples was truth. "the word's that I SPEAK unto you, they are spirit and they are life." (John 6:63). Though what He taught them was truth it was NOT ALL the TRUTH that He knew. There were many things He wanted to teach them, but they were not up to receiving it at that time. See Jo...

The idea that holding power over believers is not new to religious thinking, it goes all the way back to the time of the authors of the gospels and  the Gnostics in that time,  it even reaches back to Old Testament practices. By the way, the Gospels are not part of the New Covenant era. Jesus was born under the Old Covenant and much of His teaching was to people in that system, thus one method of His teaching reflected the Old Covenant way of living. New Covenant reality did not, nor could not come into effect until after His death and resurrection.  The thinking that denominated seminarian educated leaders are God qualified dispensers of truth is foreign to the scripture. The truth they teach as truth is sprinkled with untruth determined by the power of their own reasoning, understanding and denominational beliefs. They interpret the scripture based on what they believe and do not let the scripture formulate what they believe. In Samuel’s day the people wanted ...